“Our environment is more than just the physical setup, though that is part of it. It is also the emotional atmosphere we generate in our classrooms and the teaching decisions we make.” (27)

We strive to create an environment that encourages students to explore their world. We help students feel comfortable getting messy and making mistakes. Students know when they can be silly and when they need to focus. Providing an anxiety-free, open-ended atmosphere that encourages agency is as essential as a physically open and organized classroom.

Provide your child with an area at home that is conducive to exploration. It can be a small corner or an open area. Let your child know this is a place that welcomes his or her ideas and imagination. This place does not care about getting the right answer. It cares about the process to get that answer. Learning is about the journey and not the destination.

" Play isn't made better by toys: it's made by possibilities." Continue to reflect to ensure every place has a purpose and students can feel that they are the ones who can create and make suggestions about the environment. What does a beautiful classroom mean for us? Do we have eyes to see the learning environment from the student's perspectives? Does the learning environment speak with STUDENT's languages? We all are and should question ourselves as educators.

The classroom environment is the third teacher of the child. The classroom and school setting should be flexible with the understanding that modifications will need to be made frequently throughout the year as children grow and develop.

“In order to act as an educator for the child, the environment has to be flexible: it must undergo frequent modification by the children and the teachers in order to remain up-to-date and responsive to their needs to be protagonists in constructing their knowledge.”